Cigarette making machine



June 14, 1966 W. A. HADLEY CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINE Filed April 5, 1963 SOURCE OF DC VOLTAGE SUPPLY 5 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR WILLIAM ALFRED HADLEY WMV ATTO R N EY June 14, 1966 w. A. HADLEY CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 5, 1963 TO HIGH VOLTAGE SOURCE INVENTOR WILLIAM ALFRED HADLEY BY W 5% ATTORNEY June 14, 1966 W. A. HADLEY CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINE Filed April 5, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 WILLIAM ALFRED HADLEY E/I 91 Y ATTO United States Patent 3,255,763 CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINE William Alfred Hadley, Tappan, N.Y., assignor to American Machine & Foundry Company, a corporation of New Jersey Filed Apr. 3, 1963, Ser. No. 270,381 Claims. (Cl. 131-62) This is :a continuation-in-part of my application Serial No. 61,572, filed October 10, 1960, now abandoned.

This invention relates to apparatus for making cigarettes and more particularly to using an electrostatic field in connection therewith to improve the body of the cigarette.

It is an object of the present invention to devise a new apparatus for making cigarettes which will improve the filler by advantageously arranging the shreds before the filler is formed into a cigarette rod.

Another object of this invention is to extrude a core of tobacco, such as sections of tobacco leaf, or shreds of natural tobacco, or substitute tobacco material, such as microflake tobacco, to which core tobacco shreds are adhered and relative to which they extend outwardly to increase the firmness of a cigarette.

A further object of this invention is to shower tobacco in a cigarette making machine and to employ static electricity to cause the shreds collected in a stream to become arranged in a direction transverse to their travel prior to their being wrapped into a cigarette rod.

A further object of this invention is to deposit cigarette shreds onto material that is to be made into :a cigarette rod and to then cause the same to be formed into a cigarette rod.

Other objects and features of the invention will appear as the description .of the particular embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses. In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, like characters of reference have been applied to corresponding parts throughout the several views which make up the drawings.

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a cigarette making machine employing an electrostatic charger in accordance with the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 illustrating the novel apparatus.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view similar to FIGURE 2 illustrating a modified form of the novel apparatus.

Referring to the embodiment shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, a cigarette filler is formed in a chamber or chamber casing 10 and fed into a trough 16, which has a conventional web tape 14 traveling in the direction indicated by the arrow on the trough.

The trough 16 is made of any suitable material, and consists, conventionally, of two side walls and a bottom section which are held together by any suitablemeans. The trough side walls have suitable :slots (not shown) formed therein for receiving the side edges of the web tape 14.

The trough or channel 16 may be constructed with a taper so as to gradually effect a compressing action on the filler as it is advanced therealong while the sides of the belt 14 extend upwardly into slots (not shown) to prevent the escape of filler or tobacco therefrom in a manner well known in the art.

The filler is conveyed by the web 14, on which it is supported, to a compressor tongue 40 well known in the art and a compressor roller 42 as shown in FIGURE 1. From the tongue 40 the filler rod passes through conventional rod forming mechanisms of a cigarette making machine such as a pasting section 44, paste wheel 46, folder block 48, ironer 50 and a cut-off 52.

When the filler reaches the end of the horizontal run endless path as is well known in the art.

3,255,763 Patented June 14, 1966 of the web tape 14, it passes therefrom onto cigarette paper 54 which is supported on a folder belt 56. The feed tape 14 and the folder belt 56 are, preferably, of endless construction and travel over suitable pulleys in an The cigarette paper 54 is fed from a reel 58 over suitable pulleys onto the folder tape 56 as shown in FIGURE 1.

As shown in FIGURE 2, tobacco shreds are fed through an inlet 72 of a suitable pneumatic conveyor duct 82 in chamber 10 under the influence of an air stream while a suitable core 78 of combustible material such as tobacco foam or other suitable material is fed from a nozzle downwardly. The core material may be, for example, a tobacco material such as that shown in US. Patent 2,433,877 granted to F. H. Wells and F. J. Sowa on January 6, 1948. Tobacco shreds from a suitable source of supply which are drawn in by the air stream, are conveyed through the duct 82 past an electrode 84 and are attracted to core 78 by means of static electricity. In the event a greater adhesiveness is desired the cor-e material 78 may be sprayed (FIGURE 3) with a small amount of inocuous adhesive material, such as gum tragacanth, which will give the core 78 more body about which tobacco shreds in duct 82 will adhere to in alinement in a direction transverse the path of movement of the core. With electrode 84 being annular and encircling core 78, as shown in FIGURE 2, the charged tobacco shreds adhering to the core material will extend radially therefrom. Air is drawn out of duct 82, through :an outlet 86, after the tobacco shreds have been removed from the air stream by being attracted to the core 78. The core having shreds adhering thereto is fed to a rod forming mechanism such as shown in FIGURE 1.

To provide the requisite electrostatic field for charging the tobacco shreds to cause their adhering to core 7 8 and their relative .alinement therewith, nozzle 80 and electrode 84 are provided with terminals 70 and 74, respectively, which are suitably connected to a power source to provide .a suitable voltage such as 5,000 to 40,000 volts, depending upon the type and condition of the tobacco being hand-led.

It will be appreciated that if desired, a suitable static eliminator 76 may be at the outlet of casing 10, or employed within the cigarette making apparatus to overcome static electricity of the finished cigarette if that should be found desirable for the particular type of cigarette or the tobacco from which it is being manufactured.

There is no intent to limit the present invention to the type filler core '78 heretofore discussed. Accordingly, as shown in FIGURE 3, a modified nozzle 80' provides a core 78' of compacted shredded tobacco. An annular shield and spray 60 is provided at the discharge end of nozzle 80 and connected by a conduit 62 to a source of suitable adhesive, as heretofore discussed. The adhesive is applied to the core 78' at its leaves nozzle 80' to pro vide a tacky surface to retain charged tobacco shreds and to provide cohesion to the compacted tobacco of core 78'.

It should be realized that when core 78 or 78' has a tacky surface, the carrier air stream moving the tobacco shreds in duct or passage 82 also tends to dry the tacky core surface as it fiows thereby.

The invention hereinabove described may therefore be varied in construction within the scope of the claims, for the particular device selected to illustrate the invention is but one of many possible embodiments of the same. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted to the precise details of the structure shown and described.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for making a cigarette filler, comprising means for providing and feeding a continuous core of combustible material with a tacky surface along an elongated path, means for providing shredded tobacco to the tacky surface of the core of combustible material along the elongated path, and means disposed along the elongated path for imposing :an electrostatic charge on the shredded tobacco causing the charged tobacco shreds to adhere to and be retained by the tacky surface of the core of combustible material and to aline said shreds in a direction transverse to the elongated path.

2. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the means providing and feeding the core of combustible material includes means for applying adhesive to the surface of the core of said combustible material to provide the tacky surface thereof.

3. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the means providing and feeding the core of combustible material includes nozzle means for extruding the core of a tacky combustible material.

4. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means for drying the tacky surface of the core of combustible material.

5. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means for eliminating the static charge from the combustible material and the tobacco shreds retained by the surface thereof.

6. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the means for imposing an electrostatic charge includes an annular electrode through which the combustible material passes so that the charged tobacco shreds retained by the tacky surface of the combustible material extend radially therefrom.

7. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means forming a filler forming chamber providing the elongated path and having an outlet for the filler formed therein.

8. The apparatus in accordance with claim 7, wherein the means for receiving and feeding shredded tobacco 35 comprises passage means in the filler forming chamber having an inlet at one end to receive shredded tobacco and air flow means for feeding the shreds of tobacco and accelerating the drying of the tacky surface of the core of combustible material, and the passage means having an Tmtlet for the air flow at its end opposite from the in- 9. The apparatus in accordance with claim 7, further comprising means disposed adjacent the outlet of the filler forming chamber for removing an electrostatic charge from the filler formed by the core of combustible material and the shreds of tobacco adhered thereto passing through such outlet to leave the filler forming chamber.

10. The apparatus in accordance with claim 7, wherein the means for imposing an electrostatic charge includes an annular electrode within the filler forming chamber between the core providing means and the chamber outlet for causing the charged shreds of tobacco to extend radially from the combustible material.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 546,638 9/1895 Butler 131-66 555,420 2/1896 Baron 131-8 579,421 3/ 1897 Campbell 131-8 700,958 5/1902 Lundington 131-66 1,977,991 10/1934 Hawkins 131-84 X 2,164,702 7/ 1939 Davidson. 2,438,877 1/1948 Wells et a1 131-17 2,468,827 5/ 1949 Kennedy et al. 3,016,904 1/1962 Schmermund 131-121 X 3,096,772 7/1963 Korber 131-84 X FOREIGN PATENTS 730 1870 Great Britain. 1,783 1/ 1914 Great Britain. 440,484 1/ 1936 Great Britain.

SAMUEL KOREN, Primary Examiner. JOSEPH S. REICH, Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR MAKING A CIGARETTE FILLER, COMPRISING MEANS FOR PROVIDING AND FEEDING A CONTINUOUS CORE OF COMBUSTIBLE MATERIAL WITH A TACKY SURFACE ALONG AN ELONGATED PATH, MEANS FOR PROVIDING SHREDDED TOBACCO TO THE TACKY SURFACE OF THE CORE OF COMBUSTIBLE MATERIAL ALONG THE ELONGATED PATH, AND MEANS DISPOSED ALONG THE ELONGATED PATH FOR IMPOSING AN ELECTROSSTATIC CHARGE ON THE SHREDDED TOBACCO CAUSING THE CHARGED TOBACCO SHREDS TO ADHERE TO AND BE RETAINED BY THE TACKY SURFACE OF THE CORE OF COMBUSTIBLE MATERIAL AND TO ALINE SAID SHREDS IN A DIRECTION TRANSVERSE TO THE ELONGATED PATH. 